The Dáil has heard that hundreds of thousands of workers continue to struggle with rising bills and they received insufficient support in last October's budget.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin acknowledged that many families are under enormous pressure but he insisted that the Government interventions had significantly mitigated the impact.
The residual effect of last evening's fractious confidence debate in the Government was lingering in the air in Leinster House this morning.
The Taoiseach accused Sinn Féin of lacking the courage to condemn threats to gardaí arising from the fuel protests.
Micheál Martin told the Dáil that the Government had won a confidence vote by a substantial majority.
The Sinn Féin leader responded by saying that she condemned all forms intimidation and does not lack courage.
Mary Lou McDonald said the Government has lost the confidence of the Irish people because of its arrogance and its refusal to listen.
"You are a Government that makes things harder for people," she said.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that while the Government had secured a parliamentary win yesterday, it had lost "two Healy Raes for the price of one" and paid "a high price indeed".
The Sinn Féin leader also told the Dáil that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors had hiked rents on local authority tenants in Dublin, adding that many are living in conditions akin to Strumpet City.
To the sound of applause from the public gallery, she said there are entire blocks of apartments in Dublin city which are riddled with dampness.
The Taoiseach said Dublin City Council needs to do far more in terms of maintenance and regeneration.
The Labour leader challenged the Taoiseach over what she described as a lack of meaningful support for workers facing mounting cost-of-living pressures, during a heated exchange in Leaders' Questions.
She argued that hundreds of thousands of PAYE workers continue to struggle with rising bills and received insufficient support in last October's budget.
"The pressure for hard-working families and households in this cost-of-living crisis has not gone away," she said, pointing to increasing grocery prices, rising rents and mortgages, and escalating energy costs.
She criticised the withdrawal of energy credits and one-off payments, and claimed that tax measures had disproportionately favoured developers and large corporations.
"The only relief you've given is a few cents off petrol and diesel," Ms Bacik told the Taoiseach, as she urged the Government to "publish a national fuel security plan" to address the situation.
'There is real suffering across our communities', says Bacik
Deputy Bacik also accused the Government of failing to implement more progressive reforms, such as indexing income tax bands to inflation.
She said Labour proposals on remote working rights and improvements to statutory sick pay had been rejected, while increases to the living wage had been delayed.
"There is real suffering across our communities," she said, adding that many households were now being forced to seek pay rises simply to keep pace with rising costs.
She said Labour would support trade unions in that effort.
In response, the Taoiseach acknowledged that many families are under "enormous pressure", citing a series of global shocks in recent years.
These included the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and more recent instability in the Middle East, all of which Mr Martin said had driven up energy prices and inflation.
"There's no question that people are under huge pressure," he said, but added that Government interventions had significantly mitigated the impact.
He pointed to analysis from the Economic and Social Research Institute, which he said found that State supports had "substantially shielded" households, even if they could not cover all costs.
The Taoiseach defended the Government’s record, stating that Ireland had introduced one of the most extensive packages of cost-of-living supports in the European Union over the past five years.
Taoiseach says Ireland's energy 'will be renewable overwhelmingly'
Ken O'Flynn of Independent Ireland then raised previous energy decisions.
"You decided to ban oil and gas exploration back in 2021," he said to the Taoiseach.
"Do you accept the banning of domestic exploitation while dependent on imports has left Ireland dangerously exposed?"
He asked the Taoiseach to reverse the 2021 decision on exploration and to repeal legislation banning nuclear energy.
He asked Mr Martin if he accepted that Ireland's exposure to the crisis is not just global but domestic by design.
Mr O'Flynn told the Dáil it should be accepted that oil and gas will be here for this generation and probably the next.
Mr Martin said Ireland will continue to produce its own energy but "it will be renewable overwhelmingly".
He said there was a poor record from exploration in Ireland but he accepted the need for strong grid connections with Europe.
On nuclear, Mr Martin said the investment is enormous.
He said solar energy is very significant and will grow exponentially in the coming years.
"The direction of travel has to be in the renewables areas," he added.
He said he believes in climate change although many people do not.
